Programme

Overview

Global Disorder – Security in a World Disrupted

Following a period in which political transitions were the dominant theme, it seems that the world has, in the most recent phase, entered a period of global disruptions. Talk of ‘shocks’, ‘disorder’ and ‘disintegration’ has proliferated across the international security field. Palpably, a concern has materialised that disruption has come to dominate the patterns of exchange, and that established mechanisms and processes, as well as traditional actors, are challenged in manifold ways.

As a result of the sum total of these transformations, international security can no longer map issues around predictable and orderly state-centric narratives. It has to tackle the question of disorder and unpack it clinically with a view to finding ways to mitigate its immediate consequences and make sense of the world-in-the-making.

To explore this new paradigm, the 2016 edition of the International Security Forum was held under the theme of Global Disorder - Security in a World Disrupted.

Turn to our summaries page to find out more about the various discussions of this year's forum.

About the ISF

The biennial International Security Forum brings together distinguished individuals who make and shape decisions relevant to international security, among them diplomats and other government officials, military, academics and representatives of international and non-governmental organisations from all over the world. The conference offers the international security community high-level cutting-edge analyses, briefs, and debates on the most relevant topics of international security.

Contact

Partners

The 11th ISF is sponsored and co-organised by the Swiss Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs as an official Swiss government contribution to the Partnership for Peace. The main conference partners include the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, and the Centre for Security Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.